NO
New Nuclear Weapons - NO
Star Wars-
EVERYTHING SHOULD BE UNDER THE SUN -
NO
New Nuclear Targets...
NO Weapons In Space
- NO
New Pretexts For Nuclear War - NO Nuclear Testing - NO
All Types Of Weapons & War & War Culture...We have only one WORLD yet! If we
destroy it, where else will we go?

A crowd of about 75 people turned their
attention from conversation to the pastel,
heavily-frosted sheet cake.* It was big
enough to feed several dozen people. A
blue, “Happy Birthday” word
candle sat in its corner, and someone
lit it before the crowd started singing
two Happy Birthdays – one for Mevlana
Rumi and one for Arthur C. Clarke. <For Sir Arthur C
Clarke: 90th Birthday Reflections: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qLdeEjdbWE>

On this crisp, cold early December evening,
people gathered from around the city,
and even from as far away as Connecticut,
to celebrate as the program’s name
suggests: “Two Universal Men.” The program
– organized by Light Millennium
in collaboration with the City University
of New York’s Graduate Center –
marked a continuation in celebrating the
800th anniversary year of Rumi
as well as a cosmic intersection between
Rumi’s departure from the world,
or Seb’I Arus, and Clarke’s
90th birthday.

Bircan
Unver
with Sir Arthur C. Clarke
on His 89th Birthday at Barnes
Place in Colombo, Sri Lanka.(Photo:
Rohan DeSilva)

Some
guests came from Connecticut for
the program.

Everyone approached their seats, wine and cake in hand, for an
hour and a half of readings and presentations
commemorating Rumi and Clarke’s
work – most importantly, how their
ideals overlap to emphasize unity in practical
as well as spiritual ways.

For Clarke, this unity can be discovered through the advancement
of science, the understanding of the universe
and the connection of all, as one mastermind.
For Rumi, unity is more personal at its
root, yet no less expansive in its effect.
It is a unity of God and human, a unity
whereby humans find God within themselves,
everywhere and beyond.

James
Clement Van Pelt

Jamal
Jalilian-Marian

This was explained by the first speaker,
James Clement Van Pelt.
A research fellow at the Yale Divinity
School, which blends religious, science
and technology fields, Van Pelt explained
Rumi’s entastic – not to be
confused with ecstatic – state in
a clear, concise way. Yet his analytical
approach did not downplay the experience.
He explained that a state of communion
can occur if you take a detour away from
sleep right as you’re falling into
it. And as he spoke, he wove Rumi’s
poetry into his presentation. From the
words of Rumi, it was clear that such
a state is indeed what he Van Pelt was
referring to.

“Unconscious is the beginning of a higher state of consciousness
beyond division to infinity,” he
said. “There’s a depth within
us where we think we’re going got
sleep when we’re actually waking
up!”

This experience, he described, is free from the “threshold
of the human-transcendent encounter.”
But it’s still pretty exciting to
transcend space and time, and Light Millennium
founder and program co-producer Bircan
Unver gave a PowerPoint presentation on a man who lives to describe
this: Clarke – a man who has been
teaching transcendence through science
for decades.

Arthur C. Clarke is best known in the US for his work with
Stanley Kubrick
on the blockbuster film 2001: A
Space Odyssey and his writing genius
behind 2010. However, these works are a drop in the ocean
of his prolific collection of writings.
And these films can’t possibly frame
his desire to emphasize the universal
mind and the palpable connection between
all earthly humans, and all of life, throughout
the entire universe. Unver’s presentation
offered the audience a brief, yet comprehensive
glimpse into the work and life of Clarke.
It also reinforced the overlap between
Clarke’s work and Rumi’s.

“As a way to accomplish [this unification of humanity for
peace on earth and beyond], Rumi has envisioned
an elevation of the human soul, where
Clarke has envisioned an elevation of
the human mind,” Unver explained.

Following Unver’s power point, volunteers
of mixed stature approached the podium
to read works dedicated to, or written
by, the universal men. Professor Sultan
Catto, graduate professor
at CUNY, read spellbinding poetry, which
he wrote on a trip to Japan and dedicated
to Rumi and Clarke. Stanley Barkan, poet and publisher,
introduced humor into the mix as he read
a few of his Midrashic poems dedicated
to Rumi and Clarke.

Sultan
Catto

TAMIR

Stanley
Barkan

The crowd silenced as actress and Suffist,
TAMIR, energetically and
colorfully presented work from Mesnevi, a profound collection of Rumi’s
words also known as The Way of the
Heart.

Direct readings of Rumi and Clarke’s
work included Reunion from The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke, read by Guzin
Biro; and A View from 2500, written by Clarke and read by Emily
Alp. Evgin Heath focused
on "divine love" of Rumi in
her presentation. Jamal Jalilian-Marian also presented Rumi's poetry, from Mesnevi, in Persian and Stanley
Barkan translated them into English
from this, their original language.

Felicity
Harley

Medine
Gul

Medine Gul,Kozmikrehber wrote a dialog attributed
and dedicated to Rumi and Clarke; and
Felicity Harley, Executive Director
of World Affairs Council of Connecticut, presented her poetry and a PowerPoint presentation
as a complement to it.

Evgin
Heath

Guzin
Biro

Merve
Arabaci

President of the Freedom, Peace and Democracy
organization, Richard J. Rapaport, dedicated a reading
to Rumi, Clarke and the Light Millennium
organization. To the attendants’
surprise, he also donated silk scarves
to the women and silk ties to the men
in the audience. All of the donations
displayed his artwork, which promotes
peace and a universal mind-shift toward
unity.

Before the presentation and between readings, musical experts created
complementary mood. Ali Kahya played tef, an authentic Turkish drum;
his student, Yusuf Karipek, played the Ney in his first, flawless, public
appearance; and Nilufer Cigrikci contributed Turkish musical style and
Rumi philosophy with the rhythmic songs
of Anatolian breeze.

Yusuf
Karipek,Ali
Kahya and Nilufer Cigrikci

Richard
J. Rapaport

Time flew as the celebration of great minds soared to its end.
The final passage, written by 12-year-old
Irem Unal (presented by
Merve Arabaci), described how the Raleigh International Festival is a miniature
version of the world that Rumi encouraged
in his poetry. The festival, which takes
place every year in Raleigh, South Carolina,
is a place where “no one is the
same but everyone is content,” Unal
wrote.

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December 12, 2005.

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